


Puppy Dog

by trainwhistlesatnight



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Cute Ending, Dogs, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, The puppy is theirs now it's just how it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 15:35:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15294603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trainwhistlesatnight/pseuds/trainwhistlesatnight
Summary: Ghastly and Skulduggery get a puppy





	Puppy Dog

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I wanna write gimme prompts  
> A friend: dogs  
> Me, crying: ghastly lvo es odog s
> 
> Throw prompts at me at train-whistles-at-night on Tumblr.

It's pouring outside, as it often is. Ghastly and Skulduggery stay sitting together on the couch, Skulduggery having pulled his socked feet onto the couch, and tucking himself just under Ghastly's arm. Ghastly sits happily beside Skulduggery, back against the cushion and very comfy as the TV they'd gotten after a point plays in front of them. Thunder occasionally booms, and lightning cracks and there's a scratching at the door and-

  
Wait.

  
There's a scratching at the door.

  
Skulduggery quickly gets up, pulling on his boots and his gun from the nearby table, he stays close behind Ghastly as Ghastly insists to check the door. They count to three, Skulduggery points and Ghastly flings the door open, ready to charge at-

  
Nothing?

  
The look around out the door, then down after hearing a quiet whimpering. There is in fact, not a horrible monster, but a small dog, obviously a puppy and by the looks of it, not even a year old yet. Skulduggery lowers his gun, tilts his head and Ghastly looks around before picking it up. He cradles the pup, obviously shivering and cold, shoos Skul away from the door so he can close it. Skulduggery slips his shoes off, and puts the gun away, this poor pup is clearly no threat to them.

  
After closing the door, Ghastly asks Skulduggery if he'll get a towel so he can dry the dog, and Skul does so, coming back a moment later with a fluffy green towel. Ghastly wraps the puppy up, cooing softly at it as he dries it, scratching it gently behind the ears. Skulduggery sits back down on the couch beside Ghastly, mouth somehow seeming to curve up just a bit for his skeleton grin as he watches Ghastly with the puppy. Ghastly did always have a soft spot for dogs.

  
"What breed is it, do you think?" Skul asks, reaching out to pet the puppy, now much happier in a warm and dry home. Ghastly looks at it, considers it for a moment.

  
"Saint Bernard." He finally says, "Must be the runt of the litter though, it seems sorta small." Skulduggery nodded, it was tiny. "It might've not eaten recently.. I'll see if we have some kibble." He sets the puppy in the towel suddenly in Skulduggery's lap, "Watch them for a minute, don't you or it run off."

  
"I'll do my best." Skul says, looking down at the pup. Mostly white, but its ear and part of it's back were a warm brown, as well as a dot right on the middle of its head, and Skulduggery chuckled at it. He brought one hand around it to make sure it didn't squirm away, and the other went to go pet it again, but it let out just about the tiniest yip Skul had ever heard and decided to nip at Skulduggery's pointer finger. Skulduggery pulled back just a tug, and so did the pup. They went back and forth like this for a few moments, until the pup pulled with just enough for to pop off his distal phanlange on his pointer finger. At the same moment, Ghastly stepped back in, having found a bag of kibble and put it in a small bowl, another having some water.

  
"What are you doing?" He laughed while Skulduggery managed to get back his distal phanlange from the puppy. He looked up at Ghastly.

  
"I just lost a very fierce and intense battle, you just missed it." Ghastly set the kibble and water down as he sat back down.

  
"Oh really?" Skulduggery handed him back the puppy, and Ghastly took it. He unwrapped it from the towel and set it on the floor, letting it explore and get to the food on it's own as they watched.

  
"Yes, indeed. You'll have to punish the thing for harming me in such a way."

  
"How shall I do that?"

  
"You can't pet it for five minutes."

  
"That's more a punishment for me than the puppy, Skulduggery."

  
"Such is fate. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good." Ghastly laughed, pulling Skulduggery to him as they watched the pup nibble on its food.

  
They went to bed without much fuss, Ghastly slept in the bed, and Skulduggery kept an eye on the puppy through the night in the living room between meditation.

  
\--

  
The puppy didn't have a name tag, they'd asked around a bit, but no one had seen or heard of having any Saint Bernard puppies lately. So, they were keeping it. Ghastly was overjoyed, having not any pets for a long time, he very much missed having one.

  
A few days passed, and Valkyrie came to visit. After saying her hellos, she caught sight of the new puppy, and immediately darted over to it, cooing all the while. She laughed and gave it little kisses on the top of its head while it tried to nibble on her finger. It rolled onto its back, and she began rubbing it's belly. She looked up to Skulduggery and Ghastly, "when did you two get this little guy?" She grinned. Ghastly walked over and sat down beside her, patting on the pups belly lightly.

  
"A few days ago, poor thing just wandered up to the house in the rain. I couldn't let him just stay out there and freeze. So we brought him inside, and we looked to see if anyone was missing him, but no one was, so he's ours now. He smiled at the puppy as it rolled back onto its paws and climbed into Ghastly's lap.

  
"Have you thought of a name for him yet?" Valkyrie asks. Ghastly looks at Skulduggery, who tilts his head.

  
"We've been thinking about them. I decided Ghastly can name him since he's much more of an animal person than I."

  
"But he still tosses in suggestions he thinks might be nice."

  
"Did he suggest Skulduggery again?"

  
"It was his first suggestion." Ghastly says, and Valkyrie laughs and laughs.

  
\--

  
A few more days pass, and Skulduggery finds Ghastly sitting on the floor with the pup as it eats, gently scratching it's back. "As it gets older if we don't occasionally give him scratches or something as he eats, he'll never let us get near him when he eats. I wouldn't want him biting anyone, especially a kid who just wanted to pet the puppy." Skulduggery nods, having hadn't even thought of that.

  
"I think it's about time we decide on a name, don't you?" Skulduggery says, leaning against the kitchen doorframe, Ghastly nods.

  
"Suppose so."

  
"At least before the day ends."

  
"Of course."

  
"Will you think of one?"

  
Ghastly waves him away a bit, used to this, "yes, yes, I can't think if you continue to badger me about it."

Skulduggery moves his head in what Ghastly has learned to be his version a playful eye roll and wanders off.

Ghastly does think of a name finally, and it comes to him as he's letting the puppy try a fun snack. He laughs as he holds the puppy up to Skulduggery, it licking it's chops over and over to get all of the new food it has tried.

  
"So you've figured it out?"

  
"I have."

  
"And?"

  
They look at the pup lick it's chops again, staring up at them. Ghastly smiles.

  
"Peanut Butter."


End file.
